TRENTON
– Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa
announced that a former clerk at the Lodi
Motor Vehicle Agency was sentenced to state
prison today for illegally selling New Jersey
digital driver’s licenses to unauthorized
persons.

Anne Marie Manfredonia, 44, of Little Ferry,
a former clerk in the Lodi Motor Vehicle
Agency, was sentenced to four years in state
prison, including two years of parole ineligibility,
by Superior Court Judge Patrick J. Roma
in Bergen County. Manfredonia pleaded guilty
on March 12 to charges of second-degree
conspiracy and third-degree tampering with
public records. She will be permanently
barred from public employment in New Jersey.
Deputy Attorney General Debra Conrad prosecuted
the case and handled the sentencing for
the Division of Criminal Justice Specialized
Crimes Bureau.

“Because
New Jersey digital driver’s licenses
are such a powerful form of identification,
used to obtain credit and board airliners,
we need to safeguard the integrity of our
system of security checks in issuing them,”
said Attorney General Chiesa. “This
prison sentence should send a strong deterrent
message to any public employee involved
in the process who would consider betraying
the trust placed in them.”

“We’ll
continue to work closely with the Motor
Vehicle Commission to detect and charge
any clerks, brokers or customers who are
involved in illegal sales of driver’s
licenses to unauthorized persons,”
said Stephen J. Taylor, Director of the
Division of Criminal Justice. “We’re
moving forward with our prosecutions of
the 40 defendants we indicted in connection
with these schemes late last year.”

In
pleading guilty, Manfredonia admitted that
she conspired with a broker, Hildeberto
Salinas, 44, of Carlstadt, to sell New Jersey
digital driver’s licenses to customers
who did not have the required six points
of identification. Salinas pleaded guilty
on March 19 to second-degree charges of
bribery and conspiracy. He was sentenced
on April 27 to four years in prison and
was ordered to pay a $20,000 fine.

Manfredonia
and Salinas were among 40 defendants named
in indictments unsealed on Dec. 5, 2011,
which also alleged conspiracies to illegally
sell driver’s licenses out of the
East Orange, Edison, North Bergen and Jersey
City motor vehicle agencies. In some cases,
the customers, who are foreign nationals,
did not qualify for a license because they
were in the U.S. illegally. In other cases,
they lacked sufficient documentation. The
customers paid between $2,500 and $7,000
for a license or license renewal, and the
MVC clerks and brokers split the proceeds.
The indictments resulted from joint investigations
by the Division of Criminal Justice and
Motor Vehicle Commission.

The
investigations were conducted by members
of the Division of Criminal Justice MVC
Unit, within the Specialized Crimes Bureau,
and the Motor Vehicle Commission’s
Division of Security, Investigation and
Internal Audit.

Attorney
General Chiesa and Director Taylor noted
that the Division of Criminal Justice has
established a toll-free tipline
1-866-TIPS-4CJ for the public to
report corruption, financial crime and other
illegal activities. The public can also
log on to the Division of Criminal Justice
webpage at www.njdcj.org
to report suspected wrongdoing. All information
received through the Division of Criminal
Justice tipline or webpage will remain confidential.